Christian Aid Backs New Mass Lobby by Make Poverty History for Trade Justice

Make Poverty History and the Trade Justice Movement (TJM) announced on 19 August that campaigners will stage a mass lobby of Parliament calling for trade justice, not free trade, on 2 November 2005.

As part of the Make Poverty History campaign, thousands are expected to come to London to lobby their MP. The campaign in November will build around the extraordinary public mobilisation around the two projects, the G8 summit in July and the significant work of the TJM in recent years, which have staged the largest-ever mass lobby of Parliament in Westminster and the biggest national lobby of MPs in their constituencies.

Already, half a million people in the UK have cast votes for trade justice in a special ballot which called on the governments to support fairer trade rules.

As the G8 leaders failed to deliver the changes needed on trade, millions will continue to increase the pressure on the UK government to lead the upcoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong by helping to benefit poor countries and the environment by rewriting world trade rules.

"We urge the UK Government to respect poor countries’ right to choose their own trade policies,” said Glen Tarman from the TJM. “We demand they stop pushing poor countries to open their economies through policies in the World Trade Organisation that are biased towards rich countries and their corporations. We cannot make poverty history while these policies remain.

When the UK public come to Westminster in their thousands on 2 November to call for trade justice, the UK Government must listen and work with its partners in the European Union to ensure a trade deal in Hong Kong that brings justice for the world’s poor.”

The lobby in UK will take place alongside the lobbies that will be held across Europe and around the world and will follow Prime Minister’s Question Time. The Cooperative Bank supports the mass lobby as part of their commitment to the campaign for trade justice.